vernment at its hospital and of
the military authorities at the Camp John Hay hospital, according to
General Bell.

Continuing the quotations from the letter of the director of medical
services in India:--

"We have found that by the judicious use of hill stations for
convalescents both the invaliding and death rate of the British
troops in Indian have been enormously reduced and the efficiency of
the Army has been increased with a considerable financial saving to
the Government.

"It is advisable that all troops and families should be accommodated
in huts, especially during the rainy season in the hills, but there
is no doubt that they are benefited by the change even if they have
to live in tents and are thereby exposed to considerable discomfort."

The importance attached by the British to hill stations is shown by
the fact that there are no less than 29 in India, their height above
sea-level varying from 2000 to 7936 feet. Of these eleven have no
permanent accommodations and are used for men only.

I add the following extracts from a letter of Major P. M. Ashburn,
Medical Corps, U.S.A., president of the army board for the study of
tropical diseases:--

"A man can remain in the tropics indefinitely without being actually
sick, if infectious diseases are avoided. This is fast leading to
the fallacy that we can advantageously remain many years in these
latitudes. The fact that while a man may never be sick, he yet may have
his physical and mental vigour greatly impaired by prolonged exposure
to heat is thus lost sight of. No man can do his best work, either
physical or mental, if he is hot and uncomfortable. The same feeling
of lassitude and indisposition to exertion is experienced at home
during the hot summer, which after a few years here becomes chronic."

"It is a matter of official recognition that government employees
need to get away from the heat of Manila each year, hence the removal
to Baguio.

"It is likewise commonly recognized that many women and children
become so run down and debilitated as to need to go to Japan, Baguio
or the United States.

"It is often true that monotony and discomfort are the cause of
nervous and mental breakdown, witness the often-mentioned insanity
among farmers' wives and the nervous breakdowns attributable to
pain and strain, even though it be, as in many cases of eyestrain,
so slight as not to be recognized by the patient."

In short, it is the monotony of a tropi